Harmful Exercises May Actually
Protect You
by Dr. Mel Siff
(Editor's Note: So much fear and hysteria has been generated about dangerous and supposedly contraindicative exercises. Here Dr. Mel Siff takes a more reasoned approach. The next time someone tells you that squats are dangerous, you will have a response.)
Dire Warnings have been proclaimed throughout the fitness & health professions.
Sports and medical science have been warning us for many decades against the dangers of certain exercises because it is maintained that these can cause structural damage. Thus, dire warnings about spinal flexion, deep squatting, ballistic stretching, spinal hyperextension and numerous other actions have been proclaimed throughout the fitness and health professions.
In the case of inanimate mechanical structures, predictions concerning the effects of certain types of static or dynamic loading can be made with a fairly high degree of accuracy, but in the case of the human body, the fact that the body is self-repairing and self-adapting confounds the issue. Even in inanimate systems the type of loading, tempering or curing can produce specific advantageous effects in the given materials.
In other words, loading can produce beneficial or detrimental effects. In engineering, this is used to great advantage in producing materials or structures that are far better equipped to handle higher levels of stress.
We might be tempted to say that repetitive flexion of a given metal rod is dangerous and should be avoided at all costs - but that same rod, as part of a structure, may be called upon to cope with that very type of long-term repeated flexion for many decades or centuries.
Certainly any system can be forced to deform or fail completely, depending on the precise manner of loading, but 'conditioning' and design of the structure can ensure a prolonged and failure-free lifespan. A key issue is designing the system with a certain 'safety factor' to ensure that the system will not fail under certain multiples of the worst anticipated conditions. An engineering structure is invariably 'overdesigned' to cope with any unforeseen levels or directions of loading. This means that a certain degree of 'dangerous' loading is catered for and this constitutes good engineering design.
In the case of the human body, the principle of gradual progressive overload serves as a type of loading procedure that allows the body to adapt to gradually increasing loads. This is supported by another one of the fundamental principles of all training adaptation, namely SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands).
Thus, if the limits of loading are not exceeded in any inanimate or animate system, then damage will not occur. This must then imply that it is relatively safe to allow the body to be used imprecisely or inefficiently, provided that certain structural limits are not exceeded. After all, we know that a certain degree of adaptation will always strengthen the most stressed parts of the body, provided that their mechanical limits are not exceeded.
We also know from the principle of gradual progressive overload that this repeated activity will make these stressed structures stronger and stronger, so that they will be better equipped next time to handle poor technique or deviations from the recommended 'norm'.
In other words, it would seem that the body will adapt to certain levels of 'harmful' exercising, provided that this is not imposed near the mechanical limits of the given soft tissues. If this is done progressively in a controlled manner, then the body should become capable of handling all of the so-called dangerous activity. Does this not sound reasonable and logical?
This implies that the neurosis about exercise safety may be misleading and inaccurate in many cases. After all, the body adapts to all types so-called neutral, natural or safe norms. In other words, we might state that perfect training produces maladaption, while integrated, well-sequenced phases of perfection and imperfection produce superior functional adaptation.
Let's now consider the deliberate role of what I term "imperfection training" in sport.
Injury Prevention by Imperfection Training
The occurrence of injury is partly related to the philosophy of injury prevention. Currently, the emphasis is placed almost exclusively on prevention by means of avoidance of so-called 'dangerous' exercises and excessive volumes or intensities of loading. Unfortunately, this approach is limited in that it tends to neglect the vital aspect of preparation to cope with less than optimal training and competitive situations. All-round sports training must include the capability of coping with unexpected and sub-optimal conditions.
In certain sports where accidents or unexpected situations often occur, such as the martial arts, parachuting and motor racing, participants are taught how to cope with events that can have serious consequences. This type of preparation needs to be adopted far more extensively in all sports so that the athlete is able to anticipate threatening situations, react much more rapidly to unexpected circumstances, take action to avoid or minimize injury, and cope with sub-optimal conditions by practicing with imperfectly executed movements.
These strategies are rarely invoked, but they should be a standard item in the training repertoire of every athlete.
After all, it is rarely possible to produce perfection of movement every time or to balance one's training loads very precisely, so it is logical to program the nervous system and brain to respond with effective contingency actions whenever imperfections of movement or accidents occur.
Forinstance, it is not unusual to witness Russian weightlifters holding a snatch overhead in the low squat position and shifting in different directions to move the bar into unstable positions which they are then compelled to control by astute postural adjustments.
In general, exercise safety is largely a consequence of skill development (neuromuscular efficiency) and may be enhanced by imposing activities which progress carefully with respect to factors such as complexity, intensity, volume, speed, range of movement, duration, variety, level of fatigue and mental state.
_______________
Protect You
by Dr. Mel Siff
(Editor's Note: So much fear and hysteria has been generated about dangerous and supposedly contraindicative exercises. Here Dr. Mel Siff takes a more reasoned approach. The next time someone tells you that squats are dangerous, you will have a response.)
Dire Warnings have been proclaimed throughout the fitness & health professions.
Sports and medical science have been warning us for many decades against the dangers of certain exercises because it is maintained that these can cause structural damage. Thus, dire warnings about spinal flexion, deep squatting, ballistic stretching, spinal hyperextension and numerous other actions have been proclaimed throughout the fitness and health professions.
In the case of inanimate mechanical structures, predictions concerning the effects of certain types of static or dynamic loading can be made with a fairly high degree of accuracy, but in the case of the human body, the fact that the body is self-repairing and self-adapting confounds the issue. Even in inanimate systems the type of loading, tempering or curing can produce specific advantageous effects in the given materials.
In other words, loading can produce beneficial or detrimental effects. In engineering, this is used to great advantage in producing materials or structures that are far better equipped to handle higher levels of stress.
We might be tempted to say that repetitive flexion of a given metal rod is dangerous and should be avoided at all costs - but that same rod, as part of a structure, may be called upon to cope with that very type of long-term repeated flexion for many decades or centuries.
Certainly any system can be forced to deform or fail completely, depending on the precise manner of loading, but 'conditioning' and design of the structure can ensure a prolonged and failure-free lifespan. A key issue is designing the system with a certain 'safety factor' to ensure that the system will not fail under certain multiples of the worst anticipated conditions. An engineering structure is invariably 'overdesigned' to cope with any unforeseen levels or directions of loading. This means that a certain degree of 'dangerous' loading is catered for and this constitutes good engineering design.
In the case of the human body, the principle of gradual progressive overload serves as a type of loading procedure that allows the body to adapt to gradually increasing loads. This is supported by another one of the fundamental principles of all training adaptation, namely SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands).
Thus, if the limits of loading are not exceeded in any inanimate or animate system, then damage will not occur. This must then imply that it is relatively safe to allow the body to be used imprecisely or inefficiently, provided that certain structural limits are not exceeded. After all, we know that a certain degree of adaptation will always strengthen the most stressed parts of the body, provided that their mechanical limits are not exceeded.
We also know from the principle of gradual progressive overload that this repeated activity will make these stressed structures stronger and stronger, so that they will be better equipped next time to handle poor technique or deviations from the recommended 'norm'.
In other words, it would seem that the body will adapt to certain levels of 'harmful' exercising, provided that this is not imposed near the mechanical limits of the given soft tissues. If this is done progressively in a controlled manner, then the body should become capable of handling all of the so-called dangerous activity. Does this not sound reasonable and logical?
This implies that the neurosis about exercise safety may be misleading and inaccurate in many cases. After all, the body adapts to all types so-called neutral, natural or safe norms. In other words, we might state that perfect training produces maladaption, while integrated, well-sequenced phases of perfection and imperfection produce superior functional adaptation.
Let's now consider the deliberate role of what I term "imperfection training" in sport.
Injury Prevention by Imperfection Training
The occurrence of injury is partly related to the philosophy of injury prevention. Currently, the emphasis is placed almost exclusively on prevention by means of avoidance of so-called 'dangerous' exercises and excessive volumes or intensities of loading. Unfortunately, this approach is limited in that it tends to neglect the vital aspect of preparation to cope with less than optimal training and competitive situations. All-round sports training must include the capability of coping with unexpected and sub-optimal conditions.
In certain sports where accidents or unexpected situations often occur, such as the martial arts, parachuting and motor racing, participants are taught how to cope with events that can have serious consequences. This type of preparation needs to be adopted far more extensively in all sports so that the athlete is able to anticipate threatening situations, react much more rapidly to unexpected circumstances, take action to avoid or minimize injury, and cope with sub-optimal conditions by practicing with imperfectly executed movements.
These strategies are rarely invoked, but they should be a standard item in the training repertoire of every athlete.
After all, it is rarely possible to produce perfection of movement every time or to balance one's training loads very precisely, so it is logical to program the nervous system and brain to respond with effective contingency actions whenever imperfections of movement or accidents occur.
Forinstance, it is not unusual to witness Russian weightlifters holding a snatch overhead in the low squat position and shifting in different directions to move the bar into unstable positions which they are then compelled to control by astute postural adjustments.
In general, exercise safety is largely a consequence of skill development (neuromuscular efficiency) and may be enhanced by imposing activities which progress carefully with respect to factors such as complexity, intensity, volume, speed, range of movement, duration, variety, level of fatigue and mental state.
_______________
